Fleshgod Apocalypse isn’t a band I’m intimately familiar with. This is my first actual exposure beyond the usual “one track on the cover-mounted compilation CD from Terrorizer magazine.” I’ve heard mixed things about them, ranging from good to crap and just about everywhere in between. This is a band people either love or hate. The folks that like more Technical Brutal Death Metal (Origin, Necrophagist, etc.) seem to enjoy this more than the people who are more into Symphonic Metal (bands like Stratovarius or even Therion and Dimmu Borgir). The thing about this group is that they fall into a strange gray area between Classically-inspired Symphonic Metal and Brutal Death Metal. Some people have described this LP as a chaotic and overwrought ball of noise. That is pretty accurate for the bulk of what’s on display. The vast majority of Labyrinth is wild and crazy. There is so much going on that figuring out what Fleshgod Apocalypse is trying to do is next to impossible. It doesn’t help that the guitars are nearly inaudible most of the time and the drums are so loud that it drowns out almost everything else. When drummer Francesco Paoli isn’t blasting away like a human tornado, things are a little bit clearer, but that isn’t very often. And then there’s the orchestral stuff… If you played an old Opera record while listening to Technical Brutal Death Metal, the resulting mess would sound a lot like what Fleshgod Apocalypse is doing here. The lyrics seem to be based on the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur (a half-man/half-bull creature that lived in a giant maze called a Labyrinth, hence the title of this LP). Of course, if you just had the music to go by, you’d never know that. If this is a concept album, I obviously missed the story amidst the blasting drums and absolute musical chaos. I may be letting my prejudices get in the way here, but I’m not a huge fan of overly technical music. My impression of this band’s playing on Labyrinth is that they’re doing this on purpose to bludgeon you into a state of mental numbness. If that is the case, mission accomplished! About ten minutes in, I was sitting there in a transfixed stupor, trying desperately to make sense of a cacophony of drums, growling vocals and shrill operatics that was hitting me from all angles. This may appeal to some, but it was a bit too much for me to handle. Maybe a more guitar-focused production would have helped, but I kind of doubt it. Given the band’s tendencies towards hyper-technicality, this would have still been a chaotic ball of noise but with more of a Death Metal sound. Labyrinth is a case of too much at one time. It might look good on paper, but in execution, this style just doesn’t work for me. It’s like getting shot in the head with a .45 caliber handgun (pick your favorite). After the first round kills me, shooting me fifty more times doesn’t make me any deader.

The Mezmerist is one of those bands that few, if any, remember from back in the ’80s. The group only had one official release, a 4-song EP, the original version of The Innocent, the Forsaken, the Guilty (1985). Most of the copies of that EP were kept by the band, and few of them ever found their way into the hands of music fans. After decades of obscurity, Shadow Kingdom Records managed to get the rights to reissue the EP with an additional three bonus tracks, which makes this a compilation of all of the band’s material. While The Mezmerist has an interesting sound, I would never say that this band was something that was criminally overlooked. The main draw for this release was that Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward played on the first four songs. Beyond that, it’s good Hard Rock, but with a vocalist that uses a falsetto style on some of the tracks. If King Diamond was in an old psychedelic Rock band, it would possibly sound a lot like this. It definitely takes some getting used to, which is probably an understatement. Tommy Mezmercardo (aka “The Mezmerist”) was a bit of an eccentric and it shows in his music. This might be one of those releases that should come with a list of drugs the band recommends that you take before listening to it, because maybe you should be tripping balls in order to get the full associated “musical experience.” If you’re into old ’70s Hard Rock, you might find The Innocent… a worthwhile listen. Even with the Black Sabbath connection, this really isn’t heavy or aggressive enough for most Metal fans.

Leila has been a fixture in the Bay Area music scene for quite a while. I’ve seen her perform with a bunch of different bands (Saros, Amber Asylum and Hammers of Misfortune, to name a few) over the years, and I was surprised to see her release a solo album. Musically, this is mostly Ambient soundscapes that has a very strong Amber Asylum vibe to it. It’s ethereal and dreamy but in a darker way than most who do this particular style. I guess the word that really fits this best is “haunting,” because some of the tracks on Cold and Cloud wouldn’t be out of place as interludes on a King Diamond LP. King’s specialty is writing songs about the supernatural, and Cold and Cloud is like the soundtrack to walking through a haunted house. When I listen to this, the images that come to mind are those of abandoned, ruined places. It evokes an odd “nostalgic” feeling that I associate with walking where people used to gather. It’s like an echo or a ghost image of something that used to exist. I know that most fans of Metal might not be into this, but those of us who cross over into Dark Ambient or Goth music will definitely appreciate it. Fans of bands like Autumn Tears, Arcana and Amber Asylum will probably get the most enjoyment out of this because it has a similar vibe and atmospheric quality.

Deranged were kind of an anomaly when they first came out. I remember them being one of the only Brutal Death Metal bands out of Sweden back in the early ’90s. Back in those days, it seemed as if every Swedish band wanted to sound like Entombed, Dismember or Unleashed. Deranged, though, was more along the lines of a Swedish interpretation of Suffocation or Cannibal Corpse. Morgue Orgy continues with the Brutal Death Metal attack that the band has honed over the years. You get guttural vocals aplenty, down-tuned guitars and blasting drums. The songs are straight-forward, bludgeoning you in the face like a sledgehammer-wielding psychopath from the beginning to the end. If you’re looking for flashy guitar playing or operatic female vocals, you’re looking in the wrong place. Deranged doesn’t do any of that. They deliver the brutality as good as any band in the genre. The production on this EP is fair, but someone needs to work on that snare tone. It sounds like a metal garbage can lid, and is also far too loud. The other drums in the kit seem to be okay, but when Rikard Wermen rides that snare, particularly during the blast beats, he drowns out the guitars. The vocals are unaffected, though. Singer Anders Johansson is always front and center, gurgling away over everything like the Swamp Thing with a throat problem. One surprise here was a cover of “Milk” by S.O.D., mostly because it sounds nothing like the original. I could barely recognize it when I heard it the first time. If I hadn’t known ahead of time that this was a cover song, I would have never know because it sounds pretty much like every other track on this EP. It was an odd choice, but the band does a good job of making the song their own. If they had been completely faithful to the original, it would have been out of place, but their rendition had Deranged written all over it. If you’re a longtime fan of the band or of Brutal Death Metal in general, you’ll probably like this . It’s a “meat and potatoes” delivery, giving you everything you want without any frills.

I went into my initial listen almost completely ignorant about this band other than a vague notion of them being Heavy/Power Metal, and having song titles such as “Adversary,” “Victim of Religion,” and “Lucifer My Guide.” The wailing, piercing singing kind of put me off that first play-through, until the second-to-last track, the instrumental all acoustic guitar showstopper “Earth Fire Water Spirit” demanded my complete attention. A 51-second reprise of the title track follows it, to close the album, and without even realizing it, I found myself singing along. After another few spins of this somewhat short (34 minutes) masterpiece, with the vox sounding better and better to me each time, I finally thought to find out who the hell these guys are. It turns out that the singer is none other than Obsession’s Michael Vescera! He has been in too many other bands to go over his complete history, but let me at least mention his years with Loudness and Yngwie Malmsteen, and that he’s also the singer for Animetal USA, which is the American version of a Japanese band I really like (I should say liked, as they have broken up some years ago). No idea why I didn’t immediately recognize him, even if he does get a little vocal assistance on a couple tracks. Living in northern Indiana is toxic to brain cells, though, so I’m going to blame the mind-devouring Elkhart air. I don’t know anything about the mastermind and namesake of the group, guitarist Ron Ravi Warrion, but the remainder of the band’s lineup (Keith Knight, Rob Brug, Tim Thomas) may be familiar to some. The only thing that anyone really needs to know is that unlike many other “supergroups,” Warrion writes songs first, and although they could clearly do it all day long, shows off second. The musicianship here is often stunning, but never narcissistic. Everything serves the song, as it should, rather than the songs being structures built around elaborate solos. The recording and production are as impressive as the songwriting, with a thicker, beefier, guitar tone than many similar bands would even know to want. Awakening the Hydra is an absolutely astonishing album that rewards repeated listens, but will have you, as it did me, singing along after less than one.

This is the fourth full-length LP for Poland’s Demonic Slaughter and their debut for Pagan Records. There are also three EPs and a split with their fellow countrymen Deception (Worshippers of the Darkness, on Hellthrasher Productions), for those who are interested in tracking down the back catalog. Having heard a bunch of this band’s earlier releases, I have to say that Downfall is their best work yet. The songs are tighter and the production here is far better than everything else in their discography to date. Over the years, Demonic Slaughter has developed a sound that is reminiscent of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas-era Mayhem, with vocalist Xaos Oblivion sounding more than a little like Attila on top of it all. I personally like that because De Mysteriis… was one of the best sounding Black Metal recordings ever. The guitars were nice and thick and loud, contrasting sharply with the “freezing cold” (read: no bass) guitars that so many other bands were using at the time. Downfall has an almost Death Metal level of heaviness in the guitar tones, and for me, that’s a positive. It gives the music more brutality and also an air of darkness that the “freezing cold” tone lacks. If there’s a flaw in this recording, it’s that it sounds a bit too much like old Mayhem. The obvious influence aside, this is some impressive Black Metal that has just enough melody to get your head banging, and enough power behind it to kick your ass. My favorite track has got to be the closer, “Cold and Haunted,” because it has an almost Folkish hook in the song that really sticks out. If that’s an omen of things to come, I think their next release will really be something special.

Almost two decades after …Got What He Deserved was released, we’re finally treated to a new LP by Spain’s ugliest Satanic export, Christ Denied. For those unfamiliar with the band, they play a style of Brutal Death Metal that’s more typical of a Gore/Grind band than one that hates Christ and praises Satan. This should stand to reason, being that Dave Rotten and Roger Infected are more known for their work in bands like Infected Flesh (Roger), and Avulsed and Putrevore (Dave). The music is decidedly old-school Brutal Death Metal, primarily influenced by the first wave of Pathological Death Metal (essentially the sons of Carcass). It’s slower than most of the Gore/Grind bands that populated that genre, but they make up for the lack of speed with more brutality. What most folks will have a problem with is the vocals. They’re pretty one-dimensional, mostly consisting of Dave growling “Uh-Uh-Uh” in a pitch that’s just slightly above that of Demilich vocalist Antti Boman, and Roger following Dave by gurgling “Gree-Gree-Gree” like some evil mutant toad. If you’ve ever wondered what a Death Metal band formed by Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog would sound like, this is it. The vocals definitely take some getting used to. If you can get past that, Cancer Eradication is a fairly good LP, though a bit on the hokey side. It isn’t totally awesome, but it does remind me of the early ’90s era of Death Metal. I remember a lot of bands sounding like this back in those days. It’s definitely a throwback in terms of style and sound, so fans of more modern Brutal Death Metal may not like this.

I remember the first time I ever heard Gorguts, back when the Death Metal wave was beginning to build and the scene was still breaking out from under the shadow of extreme Thrash (Slayer/Exodus/Possessed) and becoming enough of a phenomenon that even MTV couldn’t keep their stuff off of the air. Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Deicide and others were getting huge and every band on this side of the Atlantic Ocean wanted to sound like they were from Tampa. Gorguts was the first that I remember where so many genre stereotypes came together on one LP. Their music was initially much more listenable, and while it wasn’t the most innovative, their debut album, 1991’s Considered Dead, was still pretty good. It was more “meat and potatoes” Death Metal back then. Things changed, and their style became increasingly Progressive/Technical. Everyone knows my distaste for such things because I want Death Metal to kick my ass. It’s nice that these guys know how to play their instruments, but Death Metal is more about feeling than complex structures. The main problem that Technical and Progressive bands have is that they tend to focus on things that other musicians might find interesting rather than creating music that the regular fans of Death Metal want to listen to. Such is the case here. The songs are overly complicated, the riffing is anti-memorable and everything sounds like a giant ball of convoluted noise. Songs like “Colored Sands” are atonal and the structures are so fucked up that the individual musicians sound as if they’re all playing parts to different songs at the same time. I imagine there’s a reason for that, but this LP was torture for me to sit through. Even the songs that didn’t sound so fucked up were difficult to listen to because of the hyper-technical playing. The only track I actually liked was “The Battle of Chamdo,” which was a Classical music interlude. Everything else was pretty much unlistenable as far as I’m concerned.

This group has two former members of Ukrainian NSBM band Nokturnal Mortum in it, but Elderblood doesn’t appear to be political in nature. While Nokturnal Mortum has gone the Folk Metal route, gradually altering their Symphonic Black Metal style to incorporate more Graveland-esque Slavic Folk into their music, Odalv and Astargh (along with ex-Symuran guitarist Hagalth, here handling bass duty) have formed a new band that goes back to the older Dimmu Borgir/Emperor style. Son of the Morning is this group’s first release, but you would never know that by listening to it. This is seriously impressive. The production is top notch, the songs are well written, and everything sounds and flows like a band that knows what they’re doing. I hadn’t expected this album to be so good, but pleasant surprises are always welcome. I almost expect a band’s debut LP to sound like crap these days because so many of them do. A lot of groups don’t even develop an identity until their fifth or sixth release. You don’t see bands coming out with a strong Symphonic sound and Classically-influenced keyboards on their first LP very often. What I liked most about this is that while the keyboards play a prominent role in Elderblood’s sound, they never forget to keep the guitars in there. There are times that the keyboards and the guitars sort of blend together, but that has more to do with their tonal ranges coinciding than it does to the loudness of either instrument. If you’re a fan of Symphonic Black Metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir, this is definitely an album to check out.